Sorcerers vs Duelists
by Bryn'ryo'ishtar
Summary: When a tip about strange, powerful artifacts sends Skulduggery and Valkyrie to New York, the last people they expect to collide with are duelists.  Haven't read/watched Yu-Gi-Oh or Skulduggery?  Then this story will make no sense to you.  Leave it alone.
1. Chapter 1

Oh, guys please be nice to me! This is my first fanfic I've written, I apologize if you don't like it. I don't own Skulduggery Pleasant or Yu-Gi-Oh, by the way.

Skulduggery Pleasant

Valkyrie Cain turned towards Skulduggery, her mouth curving down into a frown. They sat with a folder laid down before both them, in his house between the cemeteries. A blizzard raged outside, but that didn't matter to them. They'd faced far worse than nasty January blizzards in their time.

The folder was an odd one. Something of a mystery, wrapped in a children's card game, as it were.

"Millennium Items? You're sure? Skulduggery, we have enough going on in Ireland, I don't see why we have to go running off to solve America's problems…."

"That's just the thing, my little Irish puppy-" Skulduggery said, his smooth voice cheerful.

"-I'm not your damn puppy." Valkyrie grumbled, not sharing Skulduggery's good nature at the moment.

"This isn't just America's problem. The Millennium Items have the power to give magic to ordinary mortals. Strong, and sometimes-evil magic, at that. And the people using them-"

"-Are nerds who spend their days playing card games. Honestly. Shouldn't we let the geeks have a bit of fun in their pathetic lives?"

She wasn't trying to be funny, but she could tell Skulduggery was amused by her bad mood. He often said he didn't like to let bad weather get him down. She liked to say that that was only because he was a sorcerer; bad weather _couldn't_ get him down. She, on the other hand, was freezing, since Skulduggery never thought to pay the heating bill, and despite the many blankets wrapped around her, she still considered frostbite an immediate threat.

"Don't all young girls like excuses to go traveling?" He said lightly, but Valkyrie didn't rise to the bait.

"I go traveling often enough, thank you. I'd just rather lay low for a couple of days, and inspecting a bunch of nerdy magical items isn't really top on my list of priorities."

"You don't have to go, if you don't want to."

Valkyrie groaned. Now she had to go. Someone had to baby-sit Skulduggery, after all, and she could only imagine the havoc he'd wreak on the poor Americans whose paths he'd cross.

"I'm bloody coming."

"Excellent. I haven't told Erskine yet, but he won't list this in as official work, since we're going out of country for something that isn't really relevant to anything recent. I bought the plane tickets for us already-"

"You what?"

"And I'm sure you'll be delighted to know that the plane leaves in one hour. The drive will take fifteen minutes, and getting past air port security will take about thirty." He said innocently, disguising a wicked tone of his voice. "If we hurry, you'll have... Oh… Five minutes to pack."

She was already running out the door.

Yu-Gi-Oh

There was fifteen minutes till landing, and Yugi could see the skyscrapers in the distance gleam like shards of glass, rising out of earth next to the blue green glow of the Atlantic Ocean. On the plane with him were at least five frustrated business men- flying into New York on business-, three excited foreigners- much like himself, flying into the big Apple on holiday-and then there was Tristan Taylor, Tea, Joey Wheeler and his sister Serenity. Yugi smiled a little bit to himself, all four of them were sound asleep and from Yugi's seat, he was glad he could keep an eye on all of them. Battle City had just finished and everyone had really needed a vacation. Unfortunately, that wasn't all they were going to New York for.

The Battle City Tournament had been called to halt, because of something very, very peculiar that Ishizu had revealed, only moments after the true identity of Marik Ishtar was known. The retreat had been called quickly, as Marik realized that there was another way, besides Duel Monsters to take the Pharaoh down, and the Pharaoh and Bakura had been oh-so curious about the mysterious "current-day sorcerers" that Ishizu had finally explained to them.

Seto Kaiba, obviously disgruntled but having no choice but to let them go because suddenly all of the finalists had dropped out, he agreed with a bit of whining to let them get back on track with the tournament after they found out more about the mysterious sorcerers.

Yugi stared out the window anxiously. Sorcerers? In this day and age? And if Ishizu was right, then a Pharaoh wasn't controlling them, instead… They worked in organizations called… sanctuaries? Yugi's imagination worked overtime imagining what it might be like. His thoughts varied from Satan Occult groups, to CIA underground men-in-black hideouts.

"Is something the matter Yugi?" It was like a voice spoke inside his head, and he reached down instinctively to touch his Millennium Puzzle.

"Nothing. I… I don't know." Yugi admitted quietly, sure that no one could hear him. "It's just… after all we've been through, I mean… Magic. It just seems so…"

The Pharaoh, his other half, huffed. "I know what you mean. I can't remember much about it, but I'm pretty sure the type of magic the Millennium Items have is an unusual one. When we're here, it's just as likely someone will be looking for us, as we will him or her. Ishizu told us about that, remember? That we'd meet an… uh, skeleton and his partner? It sounds odd, I know, but Ishizu is honest. She wouldn't lie to us. We'll keep our eyes open, don't worry."

Reassured by the Pharaoh's confidence-Yugi let excitement, because this was the first time he'd traveled to America, make his heart race.

Little did he know, on the very same plane, Bakura- still possessed by the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring- smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi there! Wow, so glad I'm on my second chapter, and I'm even happier with how nice you've all been to me. :) Thanks for reading my fanfic, I hope you like it, and I apologize for any mistakes that could be in it. Just to clear up a mistake I made in the first chapter, this is in the middle of the season two. After Marik goes insane and turns into... Melvin, if you know the abridged series. Oh, and it's not really relevant when this happens in Skulduggery Ples, because this is just one of Skul and Val's many adventures. (I think...) I don't own Skulduggery or Yugioh, I dedicate all the credit to the amazing authors. Oh, and I apologize it's taken me so long to get this up, I've been so extremely busy lately and I had to edit this story half a dozen times because the first time I wrote it- it sucked. Thanks to Kimberly Sue Debalts (hope I spelled that right) for the warm welcome. Much appreciated.

The New York airport was a bad combination of things: busy, filthy, and noisy. It was the last place Valkyrie Cain wanted to go on vacation, if you could call Skulduggery following his own whims that. Nonetheless, she stood there, patiently, quietly, silently fuming and making a list of dirty words that fit Skulduggery to a T, while he ran off having _fun_ in New York. And she collected their baggage. He was off meeting an old acquaintance of his, and had given Valkyrie a fair amount of money and instructions for her to get them both a hotel. Then he'd left her before she could even open her mouth to protest and was gone.

He was doing a lot of that lately.

All around her, bustling men and woman bumped her from side to side and she resisted the urge to swing a punch. Instead, peacefully, she shuffled along with the rest of her companions through the thick security and tried to look on the bright side.

One of Skulduggery's friends had sent over pictures of the known Millennium items over the phone, and with a thoughtful look on her face, she flipped open her own and inspected the pictures carefully.

A key thing, a staff thing, a necklace thing, an eye thing, a ring thing, a scale thing, and some cube thing that looked oddly familiar. Wow… Egyptian had the weirdest taste in jewelry.

Except she couldn't help but feel that she'd seen the last one before, somewhere on a page, maybe? Maybe it was in China's library, and she knew something about it. She made a mental note to call Sorrows and ask.

But maybe there was a name somewhere that she was forgetting. There _was _a name! Something from the book she read at China's library… God, what was it? She focused and tried to remember from where on and on whom she'd seen the Egyptian cube thing. In China's library, she was sure. She had been curled up and reading in one of China's chairs, with China frowning at her, annoyed because... because... She struggled to remember, then in a snap, it almost came to her. She'd been reading a magazine, and China had been upset because it was so irrelevant and silly, in her eyes. And that name! Some name went with the magazine, she remembered.

Yogi… Tugi… Or… was it Momo? No matter how much she prodded her memory, it always slipped out of her grasp. Mato… Yoyo… Yugi…? Oh no. It couldn't be.

Images and memories flashed through her head: she and her mates at school gathered around gossiping about the new Duel Monster's champion, seeing his photo in the magazines, Skulduggery making crude jokes about him…

He was always in the magazines! He appeared childlike and naïve, with that odd, golden cube thing around his neck. Grinning, Valkyrie moved out of the line and moved towards an old, dusty newspaper line, with a tired middle aged man working the counter. She looked through the stand, found the one with Duel Monsters and Yugi Motou on the cover, pulled it off and paid for it, just as she felt eyes on her neck.

She turned, frowning, to see a handsome young man looking at the magazine in her hand with bemusement.

"Hi there." Valkyrie said warily.

"Hey." His head tilted and his blond hair swept forward. Valkyrie hadn't realized how cute he was. "Are you a Duelist?" He asked.

"More or less. I'm not really serious about it, more of a way to pass the time." She admitted, and felt the boy starting to lose interest. "But what I am interested in right now is Yugi Motou, I have… some questions to ask him."

"You look a little young to be a reporter."

"I'm not. I work for a private sector, doing none-of-your-business to save no-one-of-interest-to-you."

He laughed, teasingly. "CIA?"

"What?" She laughed with the cute boy. "I'm Irish, couldn't you tell? No, no, I work for secret society of magicians." She teased him back, and his jaw dropped.

"Oh. Wow. That's, like, totally amazing. I... I can't believe it." He grinned at her, and she frowned. Amazing? That... that wasn't the normal response, was it? She looked him up and down. She didn't see any of the Millennium Items on him, but maybe he was involved. A sorcerer probably wouldn't have that type of reaction to an agent of the Irish Sanctuary.

And with the artificats to turn mortals to sorcerers in the city, maybe...

It made her nervous that she'd met him so early on. She didn't like this type of coincidence, it seemed too easy.

"I was just kidding around." She murmured, her eyes sharp on him with interest. Maybe he'd set up to met her here, after all, their flight information wasn't exactly top secret. Either way, tailing him was probably the best thing she could do. She trusted her intuition, and the facts. Skulduggery would be upset that his wardrobe would be stranded at the airport... but then she could make _him _pick up his own damn luggage.

"O-oh..." His eyes widened sheepishly and he ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. He was pretty hot, she was disappointed that he was a suspect, their one and only, as of now. "I'm sorry, I just... Um..." He stuttered and she sympathized.

"Hey, don't sweat it." She calmed him and tilted her head. "So, what if, just out of curiosity," She purred at him, "If I _was_ a modern day sorcerer, come in search of Mr. Motou? Then what would you do?"

He looked at her slowly and she could have sworn she saw the lightbulb moment go off over his head. Wow, he was an open book. "Then I'd introduce you to my dear friend, Yugi, who's in search of some sorcerers, to get some information." He said slowly, his eyes bright.

It could be a trap. She could be walking right into the hands of someone who set this up... but...

Well, this was a good way to move the investigation forward, anyway.

"How far away is he?" She asked, her voice confident and professional. So, he was a "so-called" friend of Yugi Motou, exactly the man she was looking for.

His eyes were as bright as a little child's on Christmas morning. How very, very cute. He gripped her by her elbow, but it wasn't a threatening grip so she didn't push him off. "So you're a sorcerer?"

"Well, an elemental, to be more specific." She didn't add that she had necromancer magic, too. She'd keep that ace in her hat, just in case it was a trap. "Oh, and you'll be wanting to call us mages, it's a lot more subtle than sorcerer."

He stretched out his hand to her and they shook. "My name's Joey Wheeler. Me and my friends are from Japan, we're staying at a hotel, not far from here."

Valkyrie's eye's flashed. She knew him, he was a Duelist friend of Yugi Motou. Her shoulder's relaxed, the likely hood of it being a trap had certainly gone down, but there was a lot about this she didn't know about. "I've heard of you," She said respectfully. "My name's Valkyrie Cain."

"That's an odd name.

"It's my taken name." She explained, and saw Joey's confusion. "How much do you know about mages, Joey Wheeler?"

"Well, I know what they were like a couple thousand years ago, and one of my friends, who has the power to see into the future, told us some sor- sorry, mages would be coming to New York, and so we stopped the Battle City tournament and headed right over. My friend was possessed by an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh a couple years ago. Not really a problem, Yami's a cool guy, but we'd still like to know what's going on."

Valkyrie took a moment to embrace what he said, took a breath and slowly let it out through her cheeks, realizing the work they were going to have to do; not just educating them, but tracing down and monitoring the Millennium Items. Maybe they could petition a team from Ireland to work on this specifically.

"Okay. Well, let's get a couple things straight," She said as they walked towards the door. "First, I have to ask. Is Joey Wheeler the name your parents gave you?"

Joey frowned. "Yes."

"Never tell it to anyone again. Any sorcerer worth a dime can use your "given name" to manipulate you like a puppet. Well, granted, it's illegal, and they'd be registered as a criminal, but some sorcerers will still do it. Tell your friends, got it?"

He paled slightly at the thought and nodded. That was good. At least he was taking this seriously. "Two; you're going to see some pretty weird things in the next couple hours, but don't freak out. Sorcerers are different than they were thousands of years ago, got it? Three; me and my partner will help you, but be aware that not too many other sorcerers outside of the Sanctuary will, because we have our own problems. Four; if you see a walking skeleton? Don't freak. That's just my partner."

He gave her an odd look, and looked like he was dismissing the last one. That was fine. It was always funny to see people freak out. "Okay. I got it. So, how are sorcerers... different than they were a thousand years ago?"

"Well, I'm not entirely sure what they were like a thousand years ago," she admitted, " I wasn't there. But I'll give you the basics. There are two types of mages: elemental and adapts. Elements, like me, can manipulate the elements. Adapts have more options, but they can only do one of the thing." She started to explain it all to him, her voice kept low and between them as they walked out.

She stopped her explanation as she stepped outside and her breath left her. She'd seen this all when they were coming down on the plane, but wow. New York. Sky scrapers, busy people, street vendors, taxis, the real thing. There were no skyscrapers in Ireland, the tallest building didn't make it over six stories, and the tallest structure was just a iron needle in Dublin for tourists to see.

She'd forgotten all about Joey until he spoke behind her. His eyes were bright, a small happy smile on his face and his nose and cheeks were rosy from the sharp air. "Beautiful, huh?"

Valkyrie murmured her agreement. Her eyes focused and she pulled out her phone and sent a professional, short text to Skulduggery, let him make of it what he would. "Let's go." She said, "I want to meet this Duelist crowd."

Behind them, a following man stopped and admired the scenery of the Big Apple, his odd, long white hair brushing his cheek. He inspected the crowd and felt a shiver of uneasy run over him. They could be anywhere here, and now that the Rare Hunters were more focused on getting their Master Marik back to normal, they weren't here to offer the back up protection.

He was on his own, but that was okay. He knew he could handle anything anyone threw at him. He would accomplish his goals and he- Yami Bakura- would be there when the _eighth_ Millennium Items was made. Then he'd snatch it, right under the hands of that damn descendant of the Ancients.

In a middle class hotel that charged far too much for it's minimal services, Yugi turned in a circle, his lips pursed. "Hey, Tea, have you seen Joey?"

Tea sighed, her face red from carrying her own overly heavy bag and frowned at him. "Please, Yugi, just please." She said, her hand going up to her forehead. "Joey's not a kid. He knows this type of place, he'll be fine, really."

"So you don't know where he is." He surmised, and Tristan, who was wrestling with his overly fierce bag, looked up and chuckled.

"Tea's right. We've got enough problems as it is, and Joey's got all the information on the hotel we're staying at and a key on him, it'll be fine. Unless he's gotten into some trouble, he'll have no trouble getting where we're going. The hotel's like, a stone's throw from the air port, you know?"

"Still, I feel like something's…"

They looked up for once, frowning. Yugi had a good instinct, and they'd learned to accept this. "What?"

"There's something… or someone… not right at this airport, you know?" His friends looked worried and he added more quickly, to calm any fears they might have. "It's probably nothing. We're safe, surrounded by thousands of people here. What's the worst that could happen?"


End file.
